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The Holy Roman Emperor, His Daughter-in-Law, and their Soudanese Descendants

Submitted by Carlos Quinto on Wed, 21/11/2018 - 16:00

I am not sure what to title this post. The original title I had in mind was Maria Dorothea of Württemberg, Archduchess of Austria, and her Soudanese Descendants. (note the Soudanese, sheer pretension), but when I saw the resemblance Junior bore to Leopold Snr. I had to include the Holy Roman Emperor as well. You know Leopold has always been my main man. I have a pic of an interesting tapestry of his grandfather Leopold I lost somewhere in the junk I have around me. Hopefully I will find it and display it to you one of these days. Now I don't know whether the title should be The Holy Roman Emperor, His Daughter-in-Law, and their Soudanese Descendants or Leopold, Maria Dorothea and their Sudanese Descendants, but you will know when you are reading this.

Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg, Archduchess of Austria

When I first saw the lithograph of Maria Dorothea I knew I would get a few posts out of it and this wasn't the first that came to mind, but the subconsciousness is sharper than the conscious and this comes first.

Maria Dorothea of Württemberg

An unusual feature of the latter pic is the display of her teeth. It is rare to see portraits of European royals with their teeth showing, but it seems to have been a feature of a few of the Habsburgs, with Charles V and Ferdinand coming to mind.

Now here she is with some members of her contemporary family. My photoshop skills are not so great now. When they improve I will update this pic and display her in the right colour. It is not so difficult to believe right up to the first half of the last century, there must have been a few brown kids running around the royal palaces and stately homes of Europe, with a lot more in the not so distant past.

The Royal Procheilon

Do you notice the procheilon on both Maria Dorothea and Matthias? Yes the procheilon (you have no idea how many strange terms exist for anatomical features)!! That is the bump at the center of the upper lip. You will be surprised at how almost every painting of European royals displays a prominent procheilon. I always thought the was something odd about the lips of Euro royals until I happened to see what is was. They also seem to have a double curl in the lips which also close in quite sharply at the sides. I don't know why but it seems the painters have tended to exaggerate them for some reason. I am sure if procheilons were as prominent in the general population I would have noticed the anatomical feature a long time ago.

Which begs the question - did Matthias inherit the feature from her mothers side or great-great-great-great-grandmothers side of the family? I suspect that if you trace the feature far back enough on Maria Dorothea's family's side, you will wind up back in the Sudan.
Other than the fact of the slight upward slant of their eyes, which they appear to have inherited from their other, the kids take so much after their European great-great-great-great-grandmother. It is no wonder geneticists and other researchers who study royal families find them so interesting. I may have caught the bug too.

At this stage I wonder whether this post is too long and needs to be broken down into two parts, but I hate to see families separated.

Leopold Snr and Leopold Jnr
Here is a pic of Leopold with is older brother Joseph, and following that a pic of the diligent student he was as a boy.

Now this post wouldn't be complete without pics of Mary and Luisa, but I haven't found a good pic of Luisa except one in a family photograph where they are gazing at her new born brother. I wanted to post a pic of Mary with Leopold Snr, but he is not smiling in most of his portraits and it would give the impression that he disapproves of Leopold Jnr's choice of spouse.

UPDATE: After a close look at Leopold, I think he is okay with. He was just trying to look cool and not overwhelmed by it all, but he was definitely feeling it. See how happy Mary is. How could any grandfather-in-law not be feeling it? Don't you just love happy families?

Leopold and Mary

Now for the last pic, which has to be one of the whole family but alas I don't have a photo of Luisa Aluel and it would be a shame to exclude her. So that will have to wait. Sorry to end on this note